more on korean culture

When they get an answer right, they circle it.

When they get an answer wrong, they put a check mark or a slash

This creates some confusion...

I'm getting a cell phone! It'll be here on Tuesday. I went to the Seoul Global Center. Their website does a good job of describing how to get there, so I had no problem finding it. What I didn't know was that the only phone company offered there is LG, which I think is the biggest, and the only bank there is KEB. I had read somewhere that they can link your Korean bank account to a foreign one and you can transfer money back and forth for free, but this is not true. First of all, you need a bank account with KEB and second, it costs 8,ooo per transaction. So I got the information for my bank, Woori, from the girl there so I can call and talk to someone in English.

As for the phone, I bought the standard plan and it's for a year. If I decide to terminate early, I'll have to pay 7,500 for every month early I cancel. So if I complete 10 months, I'll have to pay 15,000. On this plan I pay 11/12,000 and 18 won per talking minute and 20 per text message. If most of the people I know end up having LG too, there's a cheaper plan that has like 200 free minutes a month for calls to LG users. Receiving is free.

The funniest thing I saw though was coming out of the metro. You have to walk a decent ways underground, an while I was doing this I saw a bunch of policemen crowded around a tiny square area, almost as if they were having a meeting. But it turned out that they were trying to detain a man in a motorized wheelchair! When I came out of the SGC, I saw them trying to stop him above ground! I don't know how it could have possibly been so difficult...I mean, the man can't walk...

I also saw some musicians, but that was about all that happened to me during the day.

Last night we ate dinner across from my apartment at a chicken place. They have one huge round plate in the center of the table and everyone takes from that communal dish. It was very good. Then we went to a karaoke place (nori bung it sounds like to me, but I don't really know how to spell it). Here the karaoke is in a private room and you just sing there with the TVs. First you pay for how long you want, then they take you to your room (you take off your shoes and they put them in cubbies for you before you step up to the place where all the rooms are). We had fun, stayed for about an hour.

Then I came back and worked on some report cards. These things are absolutely obnoxious. It's a terrible interface and only works with Internet Explorer, the worst browser known to man. It's super finicky and right now it won't even pull up the website for me. We have to enter in all the test scores for every student, all their homework information, and evaluate them using these drop boxes and then put in comments. It takes a lifetime. Terrible system. Oh well, hopefully I'll get used to it. But I really wish it was available in another browser. I hate IE.

Today, Saturday, I'm going with a co-worker, Peter, to have lunch and go to Korean class. Hope it's a good one...